Army of Darkness Year: 1993 Director: Sam Raimi Written by: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi Threat: Demon Weapon of Choice: Shotgun IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
Evil Dead
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn

Rish Outfield's reviews
Sequel to Evil Dead II, and easily the most successful in the Deadite Trilogy. This is considered by many to be a modern classic. Still, it got a bit silly and a lot campy there--probably the reason people like it so much. Ash seemed a little gruff (and sometimes cowardly) in this one, but... with lines like "Shop smart, shop S-Mart," and "You just got real ugly," one cannot dislike him. If Bruce Campbell is considered a star--this is the film that did it. The Harryhausen-like animation was very very cool--and works even better on the big screen. Skeleton warriors have always intrigued me, and you sure get an eye-ful here. The over-the-top gore is all but gone here, and terror gives way to slapstick very often. I think Sam Raimi decided (with each "Evil Dead" movie) to make things more fun rather than more scary. It this case, audiences have proven him right. I, personally prefer my dead to be eviler than this, but I can appreciate the advantages of this one. There are a couple of versions out there--two endings even (though the American ending fits better with the picture)--so you might want to look again if it's been awhile. Lastly, the line "It's a trick. Get an axe" comes in remarkably handy in day-to-day life.
Best Scare: That...thing at the bottom of the well. You know what I mean.
I'd Recommend It To: Anyone who feels like the ultimate experience in medieval horror.
Note: Due to the recent Anchor Bay release, this film's skulls are taken from the International Version/Director's Cut.

The tyranist's thoughts
I remember a month a year or two back when I stayed up late every weekend to watch this on the Sci-Fi Channel. I love this movie that much. Unfortunately, I have had to wait this long for any kind of good special edition to come out. Well, the wait is over (provided I can scrape enough money out of the bottom of the DVD fund for this one). Still, I rented the earlier DVD just so I could do this review for you. You see, Rish now lives far away and I can't just run over and borrow his DVDs anymore. Of course it works the other way around as well.
Anyway . . . as I was sitting in front of my TV last night watching this, I tried to really pay attention to exactly what it was that makes this movie stand out in my memory. If you had asked me before I started I would have said Ash's dialogue is what does it. If you ask me now I will say the same thing. Never have I seen someone so self-consciously mock the modern film hero pattern as with Ash. His one liners are terrible to the point that they are hilariously funny. This can't have been an accident. The sensibility of any self-respecting hero genre fan would have precluded not deliberately doing this. But I love it. Ash may not be the greatest of heroes, he may not even be the best S-Mart employee in housewares, but he is a true post-modern hero in his own world and mine.

Total Skulls: 15

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
What the hell?
x years ago . . .
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood hits camera
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending